Page 222 of The Well of Ascension

Vin relaxed slightly as the door closed; then she moved over to the table, sitting down in Tindwyl’s chair, pulling her legs up before her on the wooden seat.

“Sazed,” she asked, “how do you know if you’re in love?”

Sazed blinked. “I…I do not thinkIam one to speak on this topic, Lady Vin. I know very little about it.”

“You always say things like that,” Vin said. “But really, you’re an expert on just about everything.”

Sazed chuckled. “In this case, I assure you that my insecurity is heartfelt, Lady Vin.”

“Still, you’ve got to know something.”

“A bit, perhaps,” Sazed said. “Tell me, how do you feel when you are with young Lord Venture?”

“I want him to hold me,” Vin said quietly, turning to the side, looking out the window. “I want him to talk to me, even if I don’t understand what he’s saying. Anything to keep him there, with me. I want to be better because of him.”

“That seems like a very good sign, Lady Vin.”

“But…” Vin glanced down. “I’m not good for him, Sazed. He’s scared of me.”

“Scared?”

“Well, he’s at least uncomfortable with me. I saw the look in his eyes when he saw me fighting on the day of the Assembly attack. He stumbled away from me, Sazed, horrified.”

“He’d just seen a man slain,” Sazed said. “Lord Venture is somewhat innocent in these matters, Lady Vin. It wasn’t you, I think—it was simply a natural reaction to the horror of death.”

“Either way,” Vin said, glancing back out the window. “I don’t want him to see me that way. I want to be the girl he needs—the girl who can support his political plans. The girl who can be pretty when he needs her on his arm, and who can comfort him when he’s frustrated. Except, that’s not me. You’re the one who trained me to act like a courtly woman, Saze, but we both know that I wasn’t all that good at it.”

“And Lord Venture fell in love with you,” Sazed said, “because youdidn’tact like the other women. Despite Lord Kelsier’s interference, despite your knowledge that all noblemen were our enemies, Elend fell in love with you.”

“I shouldn’t have let him,” Vin said quietly. “I need to stay away from him, Saze—for his own good. That way, he can fall in love with someone else. Someone who is a better match for him. Someone who doesn’t go kill a hundred people when she gets frustrated. Someone who deserves his love.”

Sazed rose, robes swishing as he stepped to Vin’s chair. He stooped down, placing his head even with hers, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, child. When will you stop worrying and simply let yourself be loved?”

Vin shook her head. “It’s not that easy.”

“Few things are. Yet, I tell you this, Lady Vin. Love must be allowed to flow both ways—if it is not, then it is not truly love, I think. It is something else. Infatuation, perhaps? Either way, there are some of us who are far too quick to make martyrs of ourselves. We stand at the side, watching, thinking that we do the right thing by inaction. We fear pain—our own, or that of another.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “But…is that love? Is it love to assume for Elend that he has no place with you? Or, is it love to let him make his own decision in the matter?”

“And if I’m wrong for him?” Vin asked.

“You must love him enough to trust his wishes, even if you disagree with them. You must respect him—no matter how wrong you think he may be, no matter how poor you think his decisions, you must respect his desire to make them. Even if one of them includes loving you.”

Vin smiled slightly, but she still seemed troubled. “And…” she said very slowly, “if there is someone else? For me?”

Ah….

She tensed immediately. “You mustn’t tell Elend I said that.”

“I won’t,” Sazed promised. “Who is this other man?”

Vin shrugged. “Just…someone more like myself. The kind of man Ishouldbe with.”

“Do you love him?”

“He’s strong,” Vin said. “He makes me think of Kelsier.”

So thereisanother Mistborn,Sazed thought. In this matter, he knew he should remain unbiased. He didn’t know enough about this second man to make a judgment—and Keepers were supposed to give information, but avoid specific advice.

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